Monday, October 08, 2007

Notes from a lost weekend

I was at home in L.A. over the weekend for the UCLA v. Notre Dame debacle. I don't really want to say very much about anything, but:

Karl Dorrell may be the dumbest person on the face of the earth. What kind of idiot takes a freshman, walk-on QB and 1) makes him go with an empty backfield on 4th and 1, and 2) makes him throw for a first down on 3rd and 6 from his own five yard line against a team that is pretty pathetic, and could not move the ball on offense? He should have been fired right after that play.

People can second guess Mike Scioscia all they want, but the only true mistake was not having Jered Weaver plant one in David Ortiz's ear, followed up by a fastball in Manny Ramirez's ear. They both should have gone down, and gone down hard. Until someone pays a heavy price, expect Vlad to keep getting drilled.

I'm not going to dwell too much on the loss. I think the Red Sox are an excellent team, and probably better than the Angels when the Angels are at full strength. When the Angels are less than full strength, the Red Sox are a lot better, and unfortunately, the Angels were less than full strength. That's not an excuse, but it would have been nice to see both teams with their full line ups intact.

As they currently line up, with no changes, the Angels are still the best team in the West, and outside of someone making a major splash, they will be the odds on favorite to win the West again next year. It will be interesting to see what they do in the off-season. There will be calls to get a big bat, and those people won't be wrong. Still, if they can get a full season out of Juan Rivera (assuming they bring him back), that will be a major upgrade at DH/OF. I expect progressions from Kendrick and Kotchman, regressions from Figgins and Cabrera, and roughly the same from everyone else.

I won't say he's a key for next year, because I think they'll win the division regardless, but next year is probably a make or break year for Ervin Santana. He's got the ability. The question is whether he can put it together. There's nobody waiting to take his place. He's got no excuses.

Thanks to the Kings for providing a crappy ending to a truly shitty day on Saturday.